Refrigerating apparatus



March 21, 1961 o. v. SAUNDERS 2,975,616

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 24, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR.

Y Orson l/ Saunders B His Attorney March 21, 1961 o. v. SAUNDERS REFRIGERATINGAPPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 24, 1958 0 Fig. 3

INVENTOR.

His Attorney Unite States Patent C ce REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Orson V. Saunders, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware 1 Filed Oct. 24, 1958, Ser. No. 769,428

1 Claim. (Ci. 62-291) This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and particularly to an. improvement in a closure member for a freezing compartment within a chamber of a household refrigerator cabinet.

A general object of my invention is to overcome objections present in the refrigeration art and more specifically to conceal elements of a refrigerating system disposed in a refrigerated chamber of a household refrigerator cabinet upon which moisture or frost collects or accumulates so as to enhance the appearance of the interior of the refrigerator when its outer main door is opened.

Another object of my invention is to provide a refrigerator cabinet with an inner door closing the open front of a freezing compartment formed by walls of an evaporator of a refrigerating system disposed in a refrigerated chamber of the cabinet which door in addition to concealing the evaporator also eliminates accumulation of moisture or frost on an outer surface thereof visible from the exterior of the chamber upon opening the cabinet door.

'In order to accomplish the foregoing objects, it is a further object of my invention to provide a double-walled, hollow door for closing the open front of a freezing compartment within a refrigerated chamber of a refrigerator cabinet which door is provided with one open edge or openings in its bottom edge for flow of air from the chamber thereinto.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front view of a multiple compartmented household refrigerator cabinet with the cabinet door open showing an inner freezing compartment door in the chamber thereof having my invention incorporated there- Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1 of the upper portion of the refrigerator;

Figure 3 is a broken enlarged vertical sectional view of my improved hollow freezing compartment door;

Figure 4 is a view of the bottom edge of the hollow door taken in the direction of the arrow 4 in Figure 3 showing openings therein.

Referring to the drawings and particularly to Figure 1,

there is shown a refrigerator cabinet having outer metal panels or walls 11 and an inner metal liner 12 spaced therefrom by any suitable or desirable insulating material 13 (see Figure 2) to provide insulated walls of an open front chamber within the cabinet. A machine compartment within cabinet 10 below the insulated chamber thereof houses a sealed motor-compressor unit 14 and a refrigerant condenser 15, shown diagrammatically in Figure 1, of a refrigerating system associated with the refrigerator as is conventional in the art. This refrigerating system also includes a refrigerant evaporator 16 pref- Patented Mar. 21, 1961 erably of the sheet metal type having refrigerant expansion passages formed in imperforate walls thereof which walls are bent or shaped to provide an open front freezing compartment 17 in the upper portion of the cabinet chamber. Evaporator 16 is supported from the top portion of refrigerator cabinet 10 with its side walls spaced from liner 12 of the chamber therein. A partitioning means in the form of a one-piece molded plastic combined drip tray and partition 18 is slidably and removably mounted in the chamber of cabinet 10 in any suitable or conventional manner. The sides of partition 18 are spaced from liner 12 of this open front chamber providing for circulation of air therearoundto and from a food storage compartment 19 therebelow over walls of the evaporator 16 to chill foods stored in the compartment 19 to a temperature above freezing. Thus compartment 19 below partitioning means 18 is an unfrozen food storage compartment and is provided with a plurality of vertically spaced apart food supporting shelves 21. Cabinet 10 is also provided with the usual insulated main door 23 hingedly mounted thereon for horizontal swinging movement relative thereto. Door 23 extends across the partitioning means 18 in spaced relation thereto and continuously across both of the compartments 17 and 19 to close the open front of the chamber within cabinet 10. A door 24, of special design and construction, separate from and operable independently of door 23, provides an auxiliary or individual closure for. the open front of freezing compartment 17 to isolate air in this compartment from communication with air in the chamber of cabinet 10. The elements of a refrigerating apparatus as thus far described, except for door 24, are more or less conventional equipment therefor to provide a so-called standard type household refrigerator cabinet as is commonly referred to by those familiar with the art. The refrigerating effect produced by evaporator 16 reduces the temperature in compartment 17 below freezing for the storage of frozen meats or the like therein or for freezing water in trays into ice blocks for table use and walls of the evaporator cools and causes circulation of air in the cabinet chamber downwardly around partitioning means 18 into storage compartment 19 for chilling food products stored therein. Operation of the refrigerant translating device or motor-compressor unit 14 of the refrigerating system associated with cabinet 10 ,may be controlled by any suitable thermostatic means,

construction and arrangement of an inner door in a refrigerator cabinet which closes an open front of an evaporator exposed to a chamber thereof and forming a freezing compartment therein. In the present disclosure, door 24 carries a pair of metal brackets 25 at its lower opposite side edges each provided with a hole therein fitted over pivot studs 26 secured to opposed side walls of the cabinet chamber to hingedly mount the inner door on cabinet 10 for vertical swinging movement relative thereto. Door 24 extends continuously from one side to the other side of the open front chamber in cabinet 10 and is spaced from the top wall and side walls thereof to permit of its swinging movement. The extending part of at least one of the brackets 25 is adapted to engage a stop lug or peg 27 on a side wall of the cabinet chamber when door 24 is swung open to support the door in a substantially horizontal plane at the front of freezing compartment 17 whereby door 24 serves as a transfer ledge thereat while rearranging frozen food packages in the freezing compartment. The door 24 may be provided with any suitable or conventional biasing or counterbalancing device such, for example, as a spring means 28 having its one end anchored to a stationary stud 29 and its other end fastened to an extension part on one of the mounting brackets 25. Door 24 is of a doublewalled construction and is hollow or devoid of insulating material between the walls thereof. The door 24 comprises inner and outer molded plastic pan-like members 31 and 32 respectively one of which has a plurality of hollow spacing bosses 33 formed integrally thereon. Two of the spaced apart bosses 33 receive screws 34 which are threaded into tapped openings in a handle 36 for door 24 and consequently these two-bosses serve or form as apart of the mounting of the handle upon the door. These screws 34 together with screws that clamp brackets 25 to door 24 lock the door pan-like members to one another whereby the inner member '31 is -'engageable with a forward portion of evaporator 16 to close the open front of freezing compartment 17 and the outer member 32, spaced from member 31, is exposed 'to air in the chamber of cabinet 10. Bosses 33 are located intermediate edges of the door and are abutted by door wall 32 to prevent collapsing of the molded plastic walls of door 24 toward one another. The two side edges and top edge of hollow door 24 are closed and one or the bottom side edge thereof is open or has openings 37 (see Figure 4) provided therein for flow of air from the cabinet chamber thereto. The one surface of inner panlike wall or member 31 of hollow door 24 is exposed to the below freezing temperature within compartment 17 while its outer pan-like wall or member 32 is exposed to the higher temperature in the chamber of cabinet and this provides a temperature differential between the wall members of the closure for the open front freezing compartment. Due to the construction and hollow character of door 24 and the temperature differential established or existing between its walls, moisture contained in air circulating in the chamber of cabinet 10 will be conveyed thereby and will enter the door, through openings 37, whereupon the moisture condenses out of the air and collects on the surface of wall member 31. exposed to the interior of the door. Since both the inner and outer faces of wall 32 of door 24 remain at substantially the same temperature as the temperature of circulating air in the cabinet chamber, nomoisture will accumulate thereon. Any moisture condensing or accumulating within door 24 on wall member 31 thereof is prevented from freezing-and will flow downwardly therealong within the door and drip into the tray partitioning means 18. The-drip water received by partition 18 may be conveyed therefrom through a suitable drain or the partition may be removable from cabinet 10 to empty the drip water into a kitchen sink. By virtue of the unique evaporator or inner door structure as herein disclosed together with its concealment of the evaporator 16, moisture or frost which accumulates on parts of the refrigerating apparatus within the refrigerated chamber of cabinet 10 is invisible at the front thereof and does not therefore present an unsightly appearance when the main cabinet door 23 is opened.

From the foregoing, it should be apparent that I have provided an improved closure member for an open front freezing compartment within a refrigerated chamber of a household refrigerator cabinet which is of low manufacturing cost and enhances the appearance of the interior of the cabinet when its main insulated door is swung open. The construction and cooperation of my improved evaporator or freezing compartment door with walls of a chamber of a standard type household refrigerator cabinet renders the internal arrangement of elements of such a refrigerator similar to or of the same general appearance as a more expensive refrigerator employing two or more evaporators of a refrigerating system associated therewith. Thus my improvement herein disclosed accomplishes a twofold purpose without in any way interfering with efficient refrigeration in a standard type refrigerator.

While theembodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

A movable double-walled door structure formed of separate secured together imperforate inner and outer panels spaced from one another to provide a single hollow chamber therebetween extending continuously intermediate four opposed peripheral edges of the door, said inner imperforate door panel closing a low temperature compartment located within a relatively higher temperature compartment and preventing flow of air between said door chamber and said low temperature compartment, said peripheral edges of said door being closed at the top and sides thereof and open at its bottom edge for circulation of air from said higher temperature compartment into the hollow door chamber, moisture in the air circulating into said door chamber being condensable on said inner door panel, the condensate water in said door chamber gravitationally flowing out of the door structure through said open bottom edge thereof, and a removable receptacle in said higher temperature compartment beneath said door structure for receiving the condensate water therefrom.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,571,600 Nave Oct. 16, 1951 2,694,235 Jansen Nov. 16, 1954 2,710,508 Staebler et a1 June 14, 1955 2,733,483 Anderson 'Feb. 7, 1956 2,878,534 Josaitis Mar. 24, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 907,590 Germany Mar. 25, 1954 

